Media Relations, PR and Social Media

Specialist Headhunters in Media Relations, PR and Social Media

The skill and professionalism with which a company manages the media can have a considerable impact on its reputation (see our report “Managing the unmanageable?”). It follows that the head of media relations – the person with responsibility for leading and managing an organisation’s media engagement – can have a considerable influence over the way in which an organisation is perceived.

The growth of social media has introduced significant new online commentators and media outlets (who can emerge from unexpected quarters and quickly garner a significant following), adding a further dimension to the media relations role – please see our report ‘Digital Communications & Social Media. The Challenges Facing the PR Industry’. Using only the mainstream media to get your message across is no longer a valid strategy – success is now a measure of how a company uses both offline and online to counter messages, mobilise third party support and, more importantly, engage directly with critics. The skill set needed is not necessarily changing, but it is expanding.

Watson Helsby is an executive search firm that helps large organisations build and strengthen their media relations, pr and social media capability.